Monday, January 30, 2017

I just noticed an investment book available in the bookstore written by Jim Rogers, named Street Smarts: Adventures on the Road and in the Markets. This book is a summation of his rewarding life as both a traveler and an investor. Rogers offers surprising and provocative observations on how the world works, and what trends he sees in the future. Below are some tips and thoughts from his new book, Street Smarts.

1. If you were smart at the start of the 19th century, you made your way to London. If you were smart at the start of the 20th century, you moved to New York. And if you are smart at the start of the 21st century, you will find your way to Asia.

2. We are in a long secular bull market in commodities worldwide. Like all bull markets, it will end in a bubble. But the bull market still has several years to go.

3. It is good to lose money, to go broke at least once, and preferably twice. But if you are going to do it, do it early in your career. Do it early and it is not the end of the world. . . it teaches you how much you do not know.

4. The way you become a successful investor is by investing only in what you yourself have a wealth of knowledge about. Everybody knows a lot about something. Cars, fashion, whatever it is. . . just take a look at your daily life. Concentrate on what you know. . . you will see a major change coming long before anybody on Wall Street will.

5. Most successful investor do nothing most of the time. Do not confuse movement with action. Know when to sit and wait.

6. If I were to tell you that you could only make twenty-five investments in your lifetime, chances are you would be extremely careful about investing. Invest very rarely.

7. If you want to make a lot of money, resist diversification. Brokers promote the motion that everybody should diversity. But that is mainly to protect themselves. The way to get rich is to find what is good, focus on it, and concentrate your resources there.

8. New York is the economic and cultural capital of what is now the largest debtor nation in the world, the largest debtor nation in the history of the world. The world’s largest creditor nations are in Asia. That is where the assets are. That is where the dynamism and energy are.

9. Alan Greenspan’s greatest strengths were those of a politician. The way capitalism is supposed to work is that when people get in trouble, they fail. Smart, competent people come in, take over the assets, reorganize, and start again from a sound base. Greenspan’s way was to prop up failure. He and the politicians were taking money from competent people, giving it to the incompetent people, and telling the incompetent people, “Here, the government is on your side. Now you can compete with the competent people with their money and our support.”

10. I am dying to find a way to invest in both North Korea and Myanmaar. The major changes in these two countries are among the most exciting things I see right now, looking to the future. Another think I am extremely bullish on for the next twenty or thirty years is Chinese tourism. The Chinese have not been able to t ravel for decades, and now they can. Both inside and outside the country, Chinese tourism will explode.